The present invention relates to support boards or panels, and more particularly, relates to display or wall panels having grooves or slots for mounting hanger end or base portions of cantilever supported brackets used to display articles.
Many types of display panels have been developed in the past. Some panels include grooves having J-shaped or L-shaped cross-sections and therefore require a specific mounting orientation. As a result, a modified T-shaped slot or groove was developed with the advantage that the panel may be mounted either edge up. The T-shaped groove includes a throat having a throat opening in the front of the panel and extending a depth into the panel to join an inner cavity. The throat is formed by adjacent upper and lower panel wall portions.
Examples of such display wall panels are illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,235,218, 3,502,222, 4,591,058, 4,817,900, 4,844,266, 4,944,416, 5,360,121 and 5,484,067. The panels are frequently formed of composite materials such as hardboard, fiberboard, flake board, chipboard, plywood and the like, as well as, plastic or metal. Display panels used in retail sales are often formed of medium density fiberboard and the grooves are cut or machined into the material forming the panel. Decorative finishes and laminates may be applied to the panels. In some cases, reinforcing inserts are installed in the grooves to increase the panel strength and enable support of heavier loads on the brackets as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,448. The inserts may be formed of metallic or plastic materials.
There has been a tendency to standardize the display panels so that a given bracket may be utilized with substantially any of the available grooved display panels. Further, the dimensions of the T-shaped grooves have been selected to permit the use of commonly available brackets initially intended for use with pegboard.
The hanger end portion of the bracket also tended to be standardized. It has an S-shape including parallel upper and lower vertical arm portions joined by a perpendicular central or connecting arm portion. The connecting arm portion of the hanger rests on a lower panel wall portion forming the throat, the upper arm extends into the cavity to engage the inner surface of the upper panel wall portion and the lower arm engages the lower panel wall portion and face of the panel. In use, the load tends to pivot the hanger end portion about the throat opening.
It is desirable to increase the panel strength and, more particularly, the maximum panel hang weight strength as defined hereinafter. Panel failure is due to fracture or rupture of panel portions adjacent the hanger mounting site with portions of the panel being separated from the panel face as the hanger end portion of the bracket is pulled from its mounted or groove engaging position.
It is also desirable to avoid replacement of standardized bracket hardware since most panel users have a large inventory of hardware. Accordingly, it is preferable that any strength modification of the panel enable the continued use of existing bracket hardware.
It has now been found that panel strength, and especially resistance to bracket pull-out due to hang load, may be particularly enhanced by a modified groove cross-section characterized by a reduced opening width and increased panel wall thickness at the opening. Such a cross-sectional configuration tends to increase the amount of panel material available at the immediate bracket support location about which the hang load tends to pivot the hanger end portion of the bracket.
In accordance with the invention, the groove is shaped with a modified compact profile to provide increased panel hang strength while maintaining easy and stable mounting of the brackets. The hanger end portions of the brackets are also shaped with a compact profile to facilitate the insertion and removal thereof from the groove while achieving reliable and stable mounting of the bracket.
The compact groove profile includes a reduced inner cavity dimension sufficient to allow pivoting or other angular movement of the hanger end portion during insertion and removal. To that end, a bulbous cross-sectional shape may be used.
As measured parallel to the face of the panel, the bulbous cross-sectional shape has a reduced width dimension as compared with the prior art T-shaped grooves or slots. In addition, the bulbous cross-sectional shape is characterized by a width-to-depth aspect ratio substantially less than that of the prior art T-shaped grooves or slots. The bulbous cross-sectional shape has an arcuate wall to facilitate mounting of the hanger end portion and at least one wall provided by the panel portion forming the upper throat wall against which the hanger end portion is biased to resist pivotal movement as it supports the bracket.
The groove may be configured to cooperate with the hanger end portion to transfer and more evenly distribute the hang load between the walls of the panel forming the throat opening. For example, if the lower throat wall supporting the connecting arm portion of the hanger end portion is sloped downwardly into the groove, the bracket load applied to the upper throat wall or the compressive forces resisting pull out in the upper wall are in-part transferred to or provided by the lower wall.
The inclined throat wall is contained in a plane that forms an included acute angle with the plane of the front face of the panel. The included acute angle will typically be greater than 77.5 degrees, for example, 82 to 88 degrees and more preferably about 85 degrees. Since non-inclined throat walls contained in a plane perpendicular to the front face plane are also contemplated, the included angle between the front face plane and throat wall plane may range from about 77.5 to 90 degrees.
The compact groove and hanger end portion enable reliable support of increased hang loads with little, if any, increase in panel cost. In fact, the compact profile requires less shaping of the panel material and thereby reduces the manufacturing costs. That is, the amount of panel material removed to form the groove is reduced so as to correspondingly reduce energy costs and lessen waste disposal.
In addition, the compact hanger end portion may be formed by reshaping existing hardware using relatively simple reshaping and shearing processes. It is not necessary to purchase new bracket hardware, and the standardized bracket hardware may be reshaped to the compact size contemplated in accordance with the invention.